Executive: Strategy and Customer and Competitor Insights at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• Lead the development and execution of the business unit’s long-term strategy, ensuring alignment with organisational goals.
• Drive Business Unit strategy, leveraging research and insights to deliver a customer-centric, competitive value proposition and strategy.
• Continuously monitor strategy implementation, identifying new opportunities, customer value management and optimising performance to achieve sustainable growth and market differentiation.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, and leverage market insights to develop and implement strategic initiatives that position the business for long-term success.

Job Description

Accountability: Strategy Formulation and Execution

• Develop and implement the long-term business strategy for the business unit
• (BU), aligning it with the organisation’s overall vision and goals.
• Lead the annual strategic planning process, ensuring input from key stakeholders including sales, strategic partnerships, finance, human capital, and operations.
• Lead the development and execution of strategies aimed at enhancing the bank’s franchise value, ensuring long-term growth, market leadership, and sustainable competitive advantage.
• Facilitate / Oversee the strategic integration of new product offerings, partnerships, and market expansion initiatives to reinforce franchise value for the bank’s position as a leading financial institution.
• Identify market trends, competitive positioning, and customer insights to inform strategic decision-making.
• Drive the execution of key strategic initiatives that contribute to business growth and customer satisfaction.
• Monitor the implementation of strategic plans, ensuring alignment with key performance targets.
• Drive sustainable growth by using extensive market data and trend analytics to create a future-focused product commercialisation strategy for current growth and future sustainability.
• Collaborate with the marketing and communication plans with a clear focus to meeting business objectives (in collaboration with Cluster Marketing Function).
• Drive integration between the business units and the rest of the Group,
• Align brand and marketing resources to achieve the business strategies, and monitor and enhance customer satisfaction in comparison to the competitors

Accountability:  Monitor Business Performance Against strategy 

• Develop performance metrics (KPIs) and dashboards to monitor the financial, operational, and strategic health of the business, integrated with data from relevant departments, including sales, marketing, finance, and operations.
• Establish metrics and performance indicators to measure franchise value, providing regular reporting and insights to the executive team on progress and areas for improvement.
• Analyse business performance data, identifying areas for improvement and optimisation.
• Drive the engagement of role players across the product value chain including CVM, Marketing, Integrated Channels, Third parties and Vendors, etc.
• Liaise with and consume centralised services from CVM and Digital for the driving and monitoring of performance against set KVD's.

Accountability: Market Research and Analysis 

• Lead the delivery of market insights and strategy development for the A&I business, ensuring alignment with key stakeholders across the organisation.
• Conduct competitor and trend analysis and provide strategic thought leadership on market patterns to inform business decisions.
• Drive a deep understanding of customer, partner, and industry dynamics to identify future opportunities and enhance business performance.
• Identify opportunities for monetising research and insights, developing new revenue streams through data-driven products and services.
• Deliver actionable insights through primary research, and translate data into strategies that optimise customer experiences, campaigns, and brand growth.
• Represent the business at various committees, and lead knowledge-sharing initiatives to strengthen customer centricity and elevate A&I’s position in the market.
• Use research insights to recommend strategic pivots or new market entry strategies.

Accountability: Customer Primacy and Sustainability:

• Drive customer primacy through the formulation and management of compelling propositions.
• Ensure that Customer experience standards are aligned to the proposition and marketing initiatives.
• Develop strategies to harness customer data for actionable insights that drive marketing effectiveness and revenue growth.
• Collaborate with analytics teams to create models that enable data-driven marketing decisions and personalisation efforts.
• Define and communicate the Customer Value Management framework across the BU and develop customer journeys, CX frameworks, and SOPs where applicable.

Accountability: Business Management and Governance

• Coordinate, manage and advance the work of the Office of the Managing Executive, driving operational efficiency and effectiveness.
• Represent the Office of the ME in delegated projects and initiatives that support the delivery of the business priorities and objectives.
• Ensure that governance frameworks are in place to support effective decision-making and strategic execution.
• Prepare reports and presentations for the board, executive committees, and senior leadership on the product house’s performance and strategic progress.
• Ensure compliance with corporate governance standards and internal reporting protocols.
• Act as a point of entry for queries from Group, Industry bodies and other stakeholders.

Accountability: Customer Value Management

• Sets and oversees the execution of business CVM strategy, with enablement capability across the Business Unit.
• Performs customer measurement as a service across Relationship Banking, Everyday Banking and align with A&I customer value management strategy.
• Provide advanced analytics as a community of practice across A&I and in collaboration with counterparts in RB, EB, and CIB.
• Act as overall custodianship of social media, responsibility to drive up engagement across A&I. Ownership of tools on tracking of channel performance (tagging, analysis) in A&I.
• Builds and sustains a culture that aligns to A&I’s aspirational colleague experience to deliver the target customer experience and financial performance.
• Define CVM projects and track and manage churn process, understand trends and dynamics.
• Provides input into overall customer experience.

Accountability: Stakeholder Engagement

• Contribute as a key A&I Exco member to the overall A&I agenda internally and with external stakeholders, ensuring that the business agenda is appropriately managed and reported to all requisite stakeholders, in particular the Group Exco, Board, Group SECC, AFS Board, AFS SEC amongst other governance forums and where appropriate Prudential Authority and / or Financial Standards Conduct Authority.
• Partner with executive bodies (EXCOs, Product owners and strategy functions) internally within the broader PPB and across the broader enterprise to align on strategic objectives. 
• Translate objectives into delivery pipeline requirements to ensure insights are appropriate and that adequate business ownership and buy-in is created to realize overall A&I strategy.

Accountability:  People Management

• Ensure the development of a high-performing team through embedding formal. Performance Development and formal/informal coaching and mentoring as appropriate.
• Instil a culture of rigorous and robust performance management and recognition within the team to drive continual improvement and efficiency.
• Identify and execute on training and development needs for managers and ensure they do the same for their teams.
• Conduct regular succession planning and talent management sessions to ensure ongoing development and improvement of the team.
• Develop, maintain, and execute a recruitment pipeline to grow and develop the team, aligned to the group HR capability and processes and well as the approved provincial workforce plans.
• Serve as the second level escalation point for all grievances raised within the business unit.
• Develop appropriate action items to address employee survey outcomes as appropriate for the business unit and province.
• Ensure a positive employee experience and to support the group’s ambitions to become the employer of choice.

Education

• B-degree in Commerce / Business Management/ Finance or equivalent (required)
• Post graduate qualification in Commerce, Management and/ or Strategy formulation or Governance (advantageous)
• Actuary, CFA, MBA (advantageous)

Experience

• 10 years’ experience in a Financial Services Industry (Banking)
• 5-6 years of which is preferably in the Advice/Insurance business
• 5 years’ experience in Senior leadership experience in Financial Services, superior understanding of Strategy and Customer Value Management. Strategic planning and execution and Customer Service Management.

Knowledge and Skills

• Strategic Visioning and Leadership
• Business Acumen
• Creative and Innovative Thinking
• Reasoning (Analysis)
• Teamwork
• Stakeholder Management
• Inspirational Leadership
• Interpersonal Effectiveness
• Customer Experience Management
• Change and Improvement Orientation
• Networking
• Social Media
• Coordinating

Education

• Bachelor's Degree: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)

End Date: August 22, 2025